Series 9 explanation...anyone? (possible spoilers)

Series 9 explanation...anyone? (possible spoilers)
Posted Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 06:34
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Ok, so in the video on Dave's site Doug Naylor mentions that if they were to bring back red dwarf as a regular series it would be series 10 technically and they would skip nine, he then mentions that Back to Earth explains why.

Unless I missed something I don't see how 3 episodes that don't give any particular reason why there's to be no 9 and technically start with 10, so can someone please enlighten me?

The only real reason I can see for them completely skipping over series 9 is that the crew pretty much get told what happens in series 9, but given that they're in a reality created by the female version of the despair squid would that not then mean that they could in fact do a series 9 and a series 10 if the fancy took them?

As we all know the despair squid reality isn't real, and therefore what happens there is only in their own minds, insomuch as it happens but doesn't happen because it's only happening because of the squid ink thing.

Sorry if this isn't very coherent, I'm just trying to make sense of why Doug said there'd be a complete skipping of series 9, if you have any proper theories or are more observant than I, then please share your thoughts.

Does it really matter how they number it? If they number the series 1, 7, 2, 908, 53, in that order, would it change the quality of the episodes? Whether a series is good or not is unaffected by what number it's given.

We should be more concerned that the next series ends up being as good as the old RD.

Dave was in the bath when Kryten came in and said Kochanski had been sucked out of an airlock.

This was in fact a lie.

Meanwhile, Lister hasn't been in the officer's quarters (from series 3-5) for 9 years (possibly because it's where he was having his bath at the time), and he left a tap on for all that time (maybe the one in the bath?).

This flooded the quarters and caused water damage to Holly.

The skutters still haven't finished fixing Holly because they've been busy righting Rimmer's certificate in the sleeping quarters.

Sometime in the past, Rimmer died and became a hologram again. OR the S8 Rimmer was replaced with the pre-S8 hologram Rimmer, who'd previously left to become Ace.

We can summise this because: a) the new Rimmer is hardlight, whilst Red Dwarf formerly only had the capacity for softlight holograms (and it's the lightbee that determines hard/softlight, as we learn in 'Legion'); b) because Rimmer had knowledge of the despair squid; and c) because Rimmer had physical immunity to the despair squid (even if we forget that Rimmer was a softlight hologram in S5 and therefore shouldn't have been susceptible to anything as biological as squid ink . . .).

The only way we can get round the above is if we assume that when Holly booted up the new Rimmer hologram, he also updated his memories and physical data based on the records of Red Dwarf and Starbug, and that the nanos have somehow updated RD's software/hardware to allow it to run hardlight holograms.

We also know the Cat had a baby squid, which he'd somehow stored in secret on Starbug for the 200 years he and the crew are in stasis between S5 and S6, and which survived the crash of Starbug inside RD, then was kept in secret in the Brig, then somehow escaped into the water tanks and ONLY THEN (within the last 10 years) grew into a giant leviathan. Unless we assume the female despair squid somehow went dormant, rather like sea monkeys, or was still in stasis somewhere in the wreckage of Starbug, until the Cat released it later.

My guess as to why there'd be no series 9 is that we know some of the events that have happened (ie Kochanski "dying"), and Doug maybe decided that it would be best to skip series 9 because of how much time has passed since series 8. So, in other words, resolving the cliffhanger and continuing the series from that point would be a bit difficult and also less relevant now because of how everyone has aged etc. I actually agree with that point of view - I'd be perfectly fine with them coming back at series 10 (so long as they don't skip over the original Rimmer hologram returning, presuming thats who he is).

I do however think that should they return at series 10 without the hologram Rimmer and then he's introduced (either by the original coming back or the nano Rimmer dying) then a lot of people will be very confused lol.

Thing is, just cos there was a S9 where certain things happened in BTE, doesn't mean there has to be in our reality. Remember, that reality was created by the joy squid (as I like to call her). I'd assumed, when watching the programme, that because they were on S10 and we were just on S8+, it was an alternate reality (which it was). So they don't even need to number the series as per that episode. Heck, maybe Naylor was just referring to S9 as that series in which Kochanski dies and holo-Rimmer returns. Maybe he'll still call the next series S9, but it'll just skip beyond those points because they're irrelevant. So, in effect, it won't be *that* S9 but it will be *a* S9. Maybe that's what he meant?

wait..........i thought rimmer was a hard light hologram, because in the last episode BEFORE back to earth,the living rimmer got left behind on the dieing red dwarf, while the rest of the dwarfers went into the mirrorworld, and in the same series, captain holister explains that the nanos updated red dwarf, cuz it had a disco barwhich would explain how he was brought back as a hard light hologram instead of a soft light.

or atleast thats my idea and im sticking to it lol.

id still like to known how the rest of the mirror world crew died though, lol

Well the rest of them were stranded in deep space. Maybe the chameleonic virus also infected all the escape ships, though? It affected RD pretty badly, so I can see how it'd spread to the other ships too.

Well, the nanos only remade RD according to its original design plans. Hard light holograms weren't around at that point, we can assume, as no one had heard of hard light till Legion converted Rimmer's lightbee in 'Legion'. Also, in Holoship, they explained Rimmer was an inferior hologram to them, and yet *still* Nirvanah Crane at all were soft light. Therefore it's safe to assume Legion created the hard light drive, or at least they were created long after RD and the Holoship were designed. That means the nanos couldn't have updated the ship to make him hard light. And even if it was the original hard light Rimmer, why was the other hologram (can't remember her name) also hard light?

Hmmm . . . maybe we can assume Holly was the one who updated the ship's systems to allow for hard light holograms? Reverse-engineered from Rimmer's lightbee, perhaps.

We also know the Cat had a baby squid, which he'd somehow stored in secret on Starbug for the 200 years he and the crew are in stasis between S5 and S6, and which survived the crash of Starbug inside RD, then was kept in secret in the Brig, then somehow escaped into the water tanks and ONLY THEN (within the last 10 years) grew into a giant leviathan. Unless we assume the female despair squid somehow went dormant, rather like sea monkeys, or was still in stasis somewhere in the wreckage of Starbug, until the Cat released it later.

If we follow the continuity of Prelude to Nanarchy, then yes the Elation Squid would be on board star-bug. It seems likely to me that the Cat would take her into stasis with him as he could hardly feed her in the meantime. Hence, she wouldn't have grown that much between 6-8.

If, on the other hand, they didn't lose Red Dwarf until later (although that seems unlikely taking Nanarchy into account) and the squid happened to be on board, the squid could have been disassembled along with the rest of the ship when the nanobots created their mircro-red-dwarf turning the rest into a moon. When the moon was turned back into the ship at the end of series 7, presumably the squid would have been reassembled too, and she would still be fairly small (unless these things grow really quick.)

Therefore her current size is due to just the 9-11 years of growth. Assuming Cat didn't leave her in stasis during the series 6 arc.

Kryten: [SMUG MODE]I can't hang around here saving your necks all day, I think I'll make a start on that ironing.

I think Cat must've left her in stasis through Series 6 & 7, as, exponentially, if she grew so big in the 9 years since Series 8, the 2 years (out of stasis, that is, since the characters return to stasis to track down the nanos in Nanarchy) of Series 6 & 7 would still have made her big enough to be noticeable on Starbug. Therefore, she must have been taken out of stasis some point later.

What I never understood was how Cat got her off the ocean planet. If you watch Back to Reality, they board the SS Esperanto and then return straight back to Starbug. I can hardly see the characters dithering about whilst Cat gets a baby squid. And even that would draw their attention. 'Cat, why are you dangling a fishing rod over the side of Starbug? We have to get back to the ship!'

I think Cat must've left her in stasis through Series 6 & 7, as, exponentially, if she grew so big in the 9 years since Series 8, the 2 years (out of stasis, that is, since the characters return to stasis to track down the nanos in Nanarchy) of Series 6 & 7 would still have made her big enough to be noticeable on Starbug. Therefore, she must have been taken out of stasis some point later.

Yeah that's a good point.

Quote:

What I never understood was how Cat got her off the ocean planet. If you watch Back to Reality, they board the SS Esperanto and then return straight back to Starbug. I can hardly see the characters dithering about whilst Cat gets a baby squid. And even that would draw their attention. 'Cat, why are you dangling a fishing rod over the side of Starbug? We have to get back to the ship!'

I thought he likely picked her up at some point on the walk between Starbug and Esperanto, there or back. They walked along the ocean floor, and it would have taken them a few minuts, maybe as much as half an hour in their time. (Only a few seconds for us viewers of course.)

Another possibility is that they may have returned to the Esperanto when they found Red Dwarf gone. I.e. to stock up on supplies, fuel, (maybe even a couple of stasis/deep sleep units? )etc. That seems risky considering there was plenty of that ink left on the ship, but if they were desperate, they might have chanced it. The Cat could have grabbed it then.

Kryten: [SMUG MODE]I can't hang around here saving your necks all day, I think I'll make a start on that ironing.

Because we exist of their holousonation, we would get an earlier point in their life after they experianced it. I suppose that if it were confusing, it would have been explained in Back To Earth III. (55).

Maybe there is no season 9, because they knew there would be a few flaws in the ongoing story from BTE, and would leave out season 9 and just say 'it all happened in season 9' - however we never got to see it!

Maybe seein as they class BTE as a 'series', it would be classed as 'series 9'.

Maybe they just dont want a series 9!!

Who cares, whatever way they go about it, RD still rox, they have my vote for series "X" any day

That last one gets my vote. You have the line in BTE about Series 9 being the "best series ever in my opinion". Which means you can say all kinds of awesome things with the caveat that it took place in "series 9".

There's a webcomic I read where the rescue of an adventurer takes place between the strips and one of the characters involves says: "I hope we get an awesome strip where we rescued Roy in a printed special edition!"

I like the idea of referring back to a mythical Series 9 that only happened in ours and Doug Naylor's head and can change at the whims and requirements of the script.

Lister: "Why does Red Dwarf have three gender signs on the loos?"

Kryten: "Don't you remember that trouble we had with the GELF ambassador, right before we encountered the Elation Squid?"

knowing our old rimmer, he'd spend less than 10 minutes trying to be 'ace rimmer', screw it up, and spend all his time trying to find his way back to our reality. he probably succeeded, sometime after the ressurected rimmer died.

I was thinking with the whole "why skip season 9 and go straight to 10" why not do what other shows have done and started a new series. there has been a big break in between the last season and now so it might make sense to create a whole new Red Dwarf series, maybe it would help people understand the story line better and what happened since the last season. "Red Dwarf v2.0"?

Series 9 explanation...anyone? (possible spoilers)
Posted Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 23:46
NEW

There are simple explanations for certain things that may seem to break continuity, let me exlain:- during series III Kryten learns to lie, but in Series IV he has do it all over again and suddenly Lister has dated Kochanski in the past, this is because when Lister saw his future self in 'Timeslides' he made himself a better future, altering current events, just as Rimmer did when he came to life temporarily. This in turn erased the five-years-hence future of 'Stasis Leak' and Lister's previous appendictomy.

Fast forward to the gap between series V and VI - 'Prelude to Nanarchy' covers this nicely but it's also likely that Cat's joy squid was left in the deep sleep pods at the beginning of 'Psirens' and the Red Dwarf/Nano size change incident in 'Back in the Red' accounts for it suddenly being huge - lying dormant in the water tanks during series VIII. With 'Only the good...' it's possible the deleted ending with the party (see the dvd) may have some relevance, ie: 1) Lister, Kryten, Kochanski and the Cat go through the mirror. 2) Rimmer returns, gets hit with the can (as shown) and imagines the grim reaper/ dies (again). 3) L,K,K and C return with the right formula in Kryten's memory (his mech memory would counter the mirror effect).

4) anti-virus used and fixes ship. 5) Rest of crew, having already evacuated, starve/ suffocate in their escape vessels. 6) Kryten brings Rimmer(2) back as hologram but updates him with hard light and Rimmer(1) memories (any modern memory stick/card can be copied and Kryten would likely have stored the hardlight data himself) and the rest as they say is history - Kochanski does a runner and Lister overloads Holly with an overflowing bathtub.

I hope this provides a satisfying yet wholesome read for those who want to know.